Obama Press Conference Today – US is not better off under Obama

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By David Jackson, USA TODAY
9-7-12

Now that the political conventions are over, the Republicans argued Saturday that the United States has suffered under President Obama’s leadership.

“It’s time for rhetoric to meet reality,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in the weekly Republican radio address. “The reality is that America is not better off than it was four years ago.”

Barrasso criticized Obama over high unemployment and federal debt, a drop in household income and a spike in gas prices. The Wyoming senator, a doctor, also attacked Obama’s health care law.

“The president’s policies have failed to produce the results, accountability, and solutions the American people deserve,” Barrasso said. “The Obama Administration is simply not moving our country forward.”

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is using the “are you better off” argument — first used Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter in 1980 — in his current race against Obama. Romney was nominated at last month’s Republican Convention.

At this week’s Democratic Convention, Obama and aides said the country is indeed better off since he took office during a near-depression begun under predecessor George W. Bush.

Obama said Romney’s economic policies — tax cuts for the wealthy, fewer regulations on businesses — are the ones that led to the financial meltdown in the first place.

CAPTIONBy J. Scott Applewhite, AP
The Republican radio address:

“Hi. I’m Dr. John Barrasso, United States Senator for Wyoming.

At the Democratic convention this week, President Obama tried to make the case for why he needs more time to do the job he was elected to do four years ago.

As usual, the President gave a lofty speech. But his vision for America’s future comes down to bigger government, higher taxes, and more spending.

The conventions are over now. The soaring speeches have ended.

It’s time for rhetoric to meet reality.

The reality is that America is not better off than it was four years ago.

Today, 23 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. Many are our friends, neighbors, and family members.

The undeniable truth is, President Obama is on track to have the worst jobs record of any President since World War II.

When the President was hyping his so-called stimulus program, his economic team claimed unemployment would not go above 8 percent, and that it would be below 6 percent by now. Instead, it’s been higher than 8 percent for 43 straight months.

It’s bad enough the stimulus money was wasted. Even worse, he borrowed the money, much of it from China.

Household incomes have dropped by more than $4,000, while the cost of everyday living has gone up.

Gasoline prices have gone up another 30 cents a gallon in just over a month. Americans recently paid the highest prices ever on a Labor Day weekend.

One out of every seven people in America is now on food stamps.

In terms of global competitiveness, the United States has dropped for four straight years. When President Obama took office, we were number one in the world. Now we’re number seven.

American businesses are at a competitive disadvantage because our tax rates are the highest in the developed world.

Americans know what works: low taxes, reasonable regulations, and living within our means.

President Kennedy understood that. He said: ‘Persistently large deficits would endanger our economic growth and our military and defense commitments abroad.’

He said that 50 years ago, in 1962. Washington’s budget deficit that year was $7 billion.

From $7 billion then, to a $1.2 trillion deficit this year.

Obama Press Conference Today – US is not better off under Obama

For every year since he took office, President Obama has spent at least a trillion dollars more than Washington took in, all of it borrowed.

Under his watch, government spends too much, borrows too much, and grows bigger every day.

President Obama’s record of failure has come at a great cost to our country and our future.

The President’s policies have failed to produce the results, accountability, and solutions the American people deserve. The Obama Administration is simply not moving our country forward.

It’s been said that, faced with his record, the President has changed his hope and change message of four years ago to one of divide and conquer today.

More presidential rhetoric, and a plea for more time, won’t heal our economy.

A healthy economy comes from a growing private sector.

Yet the President does not seem to appreciate or value the private sector. Remember, he said if you have a business, you didn’t build it, someone else did.

In Wyoming, and in communities all across the country, there are bakers and florists, and dry cleaners and farmers who did build their businesses, and whose families have been working in them for generations.

Those business owners know what President Obama does not.

They understand, as Ronald Reagan put it, that you can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy, and still be for the little guy.

As a nation, we are being bled by overspending, choked by overregulation, and paralyzed by a lack of affordable energy.

Just look at the President’s health care law.

The American people knew what they wanted from health care reform. They wanted the care they need, from the doctor they choose, at a lower cost.

Instead, they got a $700 billion cut to Medicare; a government mandate that everyone must buy insurance; funding for IRS agents to investigate you; but too little money for doctors to treat you.

The American people want energy security. Yet the President continues to block the Keystone pipeline and the oil and jobs that come with it.

The American people want financial security for their children. But Washington has piled a mountain of debt on the backs of future generations, and the President just keeps adding more. On his watch, the national debt just passed $16 trillion.

President Obama says he deserves a grade of ‘incomplete’ on his handling of the economy.

But people only ask for an incomplete when they know they’re failing.

He’s now asking you to give him more time.

The question is — can we afford to give him that time?

Republicans have the solutions to help create jobs and get our economy going in the right direction again.

Instead of giving President Obama four more years to continue the policies that are not working, it’s time for a change.